Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday hit back at the Florida backbencher who engineered his ouster just hours before, telling reporters at a press conference that the unprecedented vote to remove him from his leadership post was called for as part of a personal grudge.
Mr McCarthy, a California Republican, was stripped of his office as the highest-ranking member of the GOP in the US government after eight of his own party joined with 208 Democrats in a parliamentary manoeuvre that hadn’t been tried in over a century, known as a motion to vacate the chair.
The eight insurgents, led by Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, claimed that Mr McCarthy was untrustworthy because he allowed the House to avert a government shutdown on Saturday by approving legislation to keep the government running for the next 45 days.
But Mr McCarthy said Mr Gaetz was lying about his motivations when he addressed reporters late on Tuesday.
“You know it was personal. It had nothing to do about spending,” he said.
He pointed out that Mr Gaetz was fundraising off of his move, calling the decision “not governing” and “not becoming of a member of Congress”.
He added that the Floridian’s animus towards him stemmed from the existence of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee into allegations that he consumed illegal drugs and sex trafficked an underage girl.
“Regardless of what you think … it was all about his ethics,” he said.
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